Sunday, September 27, 2009

In My Mailbox (8)

IMM is a weekly meme that explores the contents of one's mailbox. IMM was started by Kristi at The Story Siren.

For Review:

Bree McCready and the Half-Heart Locket by Hazel Allan
(PB/August 2009/Strident Publishing)

Twelve-year-old Bree McCready has a mission: she has just one night to save the world!

It starts when a clue inscribed on a Half-Heart Locket leads Bree and her best friends Sandy and Honey to an ancient magical book. With it they can freeze time, fly and shrink to the size of ants.

But they soon discover the book has a long history of destruction and death. And it's being sought by the monstrous Thalofedril, who will stop at nothing to get it.

Using its incredible powers, he could turn the world into a wasteland.

Bree, Sand and Honey go on the run - hurtling off city rooftops, down neck-breaking ravines, and through night-black underground tunnels - to keep the book out of his lethal hands. Little do they know that the greatest danger of all lies ahead, in the heart of his deadly lair...

Can Bree find the courage to face this terrifying evil, and to confront the secrets of her tragic past?

This sounds good! Bree will always have a special place in my heart because this is the first book ever offered to me for review by the author! Hazel is super sweet, and she sent me a copy of her book all the way from Scotland! The book is actually being published over there, and hasn't been released yet in the US, but I'm helping to spread the word. Thanks Hazel! :)


Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith
(ARC/October 2009/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Furnace Penitentiary: the world's most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth's surface. Alex Sawyer is the "new fish." Convicted of a murder he didn't commit, sentenced to life without parole, he knows he has two choices: resign himself to death in the darkness at the bottom of the world or find a way to break out of this escape-proof nightmare. Full of twists and terror, Lockdown is the incredible first book in Alexander Gordon Smith's Escape from Furnace series.

Oh, sounds scary! I think I might read this next, because I'm in the mood for something more dark. I received this from the Henry Holt InGroup review program.


Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox
(PB/February 2009/Square Fish)

Laura comes from a world similar to our own except for one difference: It is next to the Place, an unfathomable land that fosters dreams of every kind and is inaccessible to all but a select few, the dreamhunters. These are individuals with the ability to catch larger-than-life dreams and relay them to audiences in the magnificent dream palace. People travel from all around to experience the benefits of the hunters' unique visions.

Now, fifteen-year-old Laura and her cousin Rose, daughters of dreamhunters, are old enough to find out if they qualify to enter the Place. But nothing can prepare them for what they are about to discover. In the midst of a fascinating landscape, :aura's dreamy childhood is ending, and a nightmare is beginning.

This sounds very interesting! I received this in the same package as Lockdown, but I have no idea why. Oh well, I'm glad I got it. :)


Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
(PB/March 2007/MIRA)

Choose:
A quick death...
Or slow poison...

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace - and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust - and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...

I received some really interesting books this week, if I do say so myself! I've been wanted to read this for awhile after I read a great review about it. I received this from the Harlequin Teen Panel.


The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
(ARC/February 2010/Amy Einhorn Books)

Filled with stunning parallels to today's world, The Postmistress is a sweeping novel about the loss of innocence of two extraordinary women-and of two countries torn apart by war.

On the eve of the United States's entrance into World War II in 1940, Iris James, the postmistress of Franklin, a small town on Cape Cod, does the unthinkable: She doesn't deliver a letter. In London, American radio gal Frankie Bard is working with Edward R. Murrow, reporting on the Blitz. One night in a bomb shelter, she meets a doctor from Cape Cod with a letter in his pocket, a letter Frankie vows to deliver when she returns from Germany and France, where she is to record the stories of war refugees desperately trying to escape.

The residents of Franklin think the war can't touch them- but as Frankie's radio broadcasts air, some know that the war is indeed coming. And when Frankie arrives at their doorstep, the two stories collide in a way no one could have foreseen. The Postmistress is an unforgettable tale of the secrets we must bear, or bury. It is about what happens to love during wartime, when those we cherish leave. And how every story-of love or war-is about looking left when we should have been looking right.

I received this from the Barnes and Noble First Look Book Club. It's actually an adult novel. but I love historical fiction, and it sounded like a a very touching read. I couldn't pass it up. Plus, the cover is absolutely gorgeous.

I also received these from Paperback Swap:
Nobody's Princess by Esther Friesner
Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Overall, it was a great week of books for me!

4 comments:

  1. Nice books! Lockdown and Nobody's Princess look great
    Enjoy(:

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bree McCready and the Half-Heart Locket sounds cute! I'm wondering if it would be a good book for my 7th graders. Kinda sounds like it. Can't wait to hear the review.

    ReplyDelete

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